


Jealousy

by kethni



Category: Veep (TV)
Genre: Drunken Shenanigans, F/M, Female Friendship, Jealousy, Mentions of Abortion, Warning for Roger Furlong being a horrific ass
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-04
Updated: 2019-05-04
Packaged: 2020-02-23 20:29:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18709417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kethni/pseuds/kethni
Summary: ‘This is quite the potential scandal.’‘Not for me,’ Kent said, sounding insufferably smug. ‘My reputation would soar.’‘Mine wouldn’t,’ Sue said tartly.





	Jealousy

**Author's Note:**

> For anonymous, who asked for "a Kent/Sue jealous fic." I hope you enjoy it!

 

_‘You’re drunk,’ she said._

_‘I am,’ he said._

_‘You better come in,’ she said._

_‘I will,’ he said._

_They walked inside her house. She should have been nervous. She should have been uncomfortable. Her former lover, drunk, with every reason to be angry at her, was at her door. Men were unpredictable. They lashed out. They thought of women as their property._

_She was…_

Sue looked at the cat on her lap. ‘Do you mind? I’m trying to write.’

Luddy stuck his leg in the air and proceeded to wash his butt.

‘You are such a cat,’ Sue said.

_She wasn’t nervous. Not now. She knew him too well. There had been a time when he had made her nervous. That was before she knew him. Amy had laughed at her. Sniggered at her concern. Amy had known him longer, knew him better, than Sue did. Knew him well enough to laugh at the idea that he was in any way dangerous. That had said far more than Amy realised. Amy was neurotic. If she thought a man was safe, so safe that even the question was amusing, then he had to be. Sue could take a breath. Relax. She could allow herself to –_

Her phone chimed. Sue rolled her eyes.

“Need to get drunk. When can you meet me?”

Amy, of course. Who else would simply expect Sue to drop everything and meet her?

‘She had the abortion weeks ago,’ Sue said to nobody and everybody. ‘Typical it would take her this long to deal with it. Of course, she has no actual friends to help her through this complicated and potentially emotional time.’

Luddy lay down and curled up on her lap.

‘Thank you for your support,’ Sue said.

***

‘You’re drunk,’ Sue said.

‘Not yet,’ Amy said.

Amy gave Sue a jaundiced look. ‘I suppose you were enjoying wild sexual escapades.’

‘Not tonight,’ Sue said. ‘I was writing.’

Sue slid onto the bar stool beside Amy. There was a pitcher of Martinis already waiting for her.

Amy pulled her face. ‘Your dirty stories again. I don’t know why people keep paying you for them.’

‘Creative expression is important.’ She poured herself a Martini. ‘I trust that this is not because of a man.’

‘Fuck men,’ Amy said.

‘I believe that was the cause of the problem.’ Sue looked around the bar. She was here for Amy. Nonetheless, there were other people here. Not _here_ in the bar here but in the vicinity.

‘I thought… you know, we’re adults, time to put away childish shit, however that goes.’

Sue poured herself a cocktail and took a sip. She looked at Amy. ‘Are you quoting Corinthians?’

Amy looked at her blankly. ‘What’s Corinthians?’

Sue waved the question away. It was unsurprising that Amy didn’t have a reasonable knowledge of the bible. Sue had noticed that a surprising amount of nominally “Christian” people had never read more than was used in weddings and funerals. It had been more surprising that Kent was conversant. He was proud of his atheism while being dismissive of his extensive knowledge. A ridiculous inversion of every Fundamentalist she had known, where belief was in inverse proportion to knowledge.

‘You probably think that I’m a fucking idiot,’ Amy said, looking at her glass.

‘If you thought that Dan was going to have some kind of epiphany at the prospect of fatherhood, then yes, you’re a fucking idiot,’ Sue said. ‘If you mean working for Jonah, then also yes. Clearly.’

Amy rolled her eyes. ‘Like you’ve never hoped for more than a guy would give you.’

‘Would give me, yes, _could_ give me, no,’ Sue said. She looked across at Amy. ‘Dan is incapable of giving you what you need. You have known him long enough now to know that.’

‘Oh, so it’s my fault that he’s an immature asshole?’

‘It’s your fault if you expect anything else,’ Sue said. She softened. ‘Realising that the man we imagine is far superior to the man who exists is a bitter pill.’

Amy finished her drink and gestured for another. ‘That what happened with whatshisname? Your husband.’

Sue pursed her lips. ‘I suppose it is. I thought he was a better man than he was. You, however, have no reason to believe that Dan is anything other than a selfish shit.’

Amy shrugged. ‘Fucking men.’

‘I’ll drink to that.’

***

Amy rested her elbows on the bar and her head in her hands. ‘I thought I was ready.’

‘For…’ Sue hiccupped. ‘What? For what?’

‘A kid.’ Amy looked blearily at the other woman. ‘It’s what you’re supposed to do. Have a career. Have a relationship. Have a kid.’

‘Ha.’ Sue’s tone was devoid of humour. ‘That is bullshit.’ She rested her forehead on the bar. ‘I don’t want children. I hate children.’

Amy belched. ‘Didn’t stop Selina for having a kid.’

‘Please, as if Selina raised Catherine.’ Sue sat up. ‘And she has had three abortions.’

‘Jesus, really?’ Amy put her hand on her stomach. ‘I still feel like shit.’

‘That’ll teach you not to take precautions,’ Sue said primly.

‘What are you, my mom?’ Amy sneered. ‘Hell, not even my mom tried that shit on me. I suppose you’ve _never_ screwed without a rubber.’

Sue crossed her legs. ‘Never by choice. My ex-husband took one off partway through.’

Amy shook her head and nearly fell from the stool. ‘In Sweden that’s like… assault.’

Sue poured out the last of her pitcher. ‘Rape, I think.’

‘Thank God for Plan B.’

‘True.’ Sue tensed her shoulders. ‘Why is Kent there? Don’t look!’

Amy swivelled on her seat and waved.

‘What are you doing?’ Sue demanded.

Amy wagged a hand at Sue. ‘You need to get laid.’

‘I do not and if I did it would not be… hello, Kent,’ she said unwillingly.

He looked good. The last time that she’d seen him in person had been when he’d been working for Jonah. It hadn’t been a good time for him. They hadn’t talked, as staffers for a _very_ junior congressman he and Ben were officially Beneath Her Notice, but she had seen unhappiness and frustration stamped on his face.

‘Hello Sue, Amy,’ he said, taking a seat next to her. He looked at the array of glasses in front of them. ‘I see I have some catching up to do.’

‘Bottle of whisky for the man,’ Amy said, snapping her fingers at the servers.

‘Are you attempting to get me served a bottle topped up with urine?’ Kent asked.

Amy shrugged. ‘We can only hope.’

Sue leaned towards Kent. ‘She had an abortion,’ she said.

Kent blinked. ‘Yes, some time ago. I’m aware. Perhaps I should have given congratulations at the time.’

Amy rested her chin on her fist. ‘Who the fuck gives congratulations on an abortion?’

‘It’s a medical procedure,’ Kent said, pouring himself a whisky from the bottle the server gave him. ‘All medical procedures carry some risk. Successfully coming through a medical procedure without succumbing to complications seems worthy of congratulations.’

‘I’ll toast to that,’ Amy said. She drained her glass.

‘You’re supposed to… wait for us,’ Sue complained.

Amy waved a hand. ‘Make your own…’ Her voice trailed off. Her eyes became unfocussed. She fell backwards off the barstool.

‘Is she dead?’ Kent asked.

‘You should… you should… check,’ Sue said.

He shook his head. ‘Nope. Not going near a passed-out woman. Don’t need that kind of trouble.’

Sue rolled her eyes and unsteadily slid off her barstool. ‘Leaving her on the floor is a… a different kind of trouble.’

Kent emptied his glass. ‘I’m sure I’m going to regret this.’

‘You have plenty of other things to… regret,’ Sue said.

***

Dan was not in his room. Sue kicked the door.

‘I can’t carry her around all night,’ Kent complained. He had Amy in a fireman’s lift. Her long hair was dangling freely.

‘It’s been five minutes,’ Sue said, leaning against the wall. ‘We can’t… leave her alone. Not safe.’

Kent shifted Amy to the other shoulder. ‘Okay, where’s your room?’

Sue groaned and staggered away. ‘Or yours.’

‘Not going to happen,’ he said firmly. ‘I’m not getting arrested because you flaked on me. Again.’

With the flickering fluorescent lights buzzing and the world lurching, it took Sue several seconds to parse his meaning.

‘Flake on you?’ She demanded, stumbling over to her door. She fumbled for her key card. ‘I am the most… reliable person in this entire building.’

Kent pushed her door open with his foot. ‘Last I heard repeatedly cancelling dates to avoid just breaking up is not a sign of being “reliable,” Sue.’

She slammed the door as he strode over to the bed and laid Amy down.

‘That’s my bed!’ she protested.

‘I don’t see any others,’ he said. ‘Goodnight, Sue. I’ll see you –’

She dove forward, towards the bathroom door, and only just reached it. As she threw up in the toilet, she heard Kent give a loud and heavy sigh.

‘I suppose I’ll take the couch then,’ he said.

***

A hand on her stomach. The warmth of a body beside her. The smell of skin.

Sue licked her lips and shifted a little closer. The room beyond her closed eyelids was still dark. She shifted onto her back and reached out. Her fingers slid along the bed.

The hand on her thigh was small. The skin had a light, perfumed scent. Sue’s fingers found the delicate curve of thigh.

_He took the ribbon from the bedside table and tied her wrists to the headboard. Her feet slid up his calves. He flicked his tongue around her nipples then breathed over the moist skin. Sue shivered, moaning softly, and wrapped her legs around his waist._

‘Well at least I wouldn’t get pregnant,’ Amy mumbled, rolling onto her back.

‘Is that you?’

‘The person whose thigh you’re groping. Yep.’

‘You smell better than I would anticipate for a woman as drunken as you were last night,’ Sue said. She felt Amy sit up.

‘First time I’ve been so drunk that a woman’s taken me back to her room,’ Amy said.

Sue opened her eyes. The room was dark, but slivers of light were creeping around the corners of the drapes. ‘You need more female friends,’ she said.

‘For drunken lesbian sex?’

Sue considered it. ‘If the alternative is drunken sex with Dan, then yes.’

Amy nodded. ‘Better chance of getting head.’

‘I’m excellent at giving head,’ Sue said.

‘Can confirm,’ a male voice said.

The two women fell silent.

Sue cleared her throat. ‘… Kent?’

‘Good morning.’ His voice was gravelly. ‘Please don’t let me stop the conversation.’

Amy snorted. ‘Wow.’ She got out of bed, stumbled through the dark room to the bedroom, and could be heard swishing around Sue’s mouthwash.

‘Selina’s chief strategist, Jonah’s campaign manager, and POTUS’s appointment secretary, spent all night in a hotel room together,’ Sue said. ‘This is quite the potential scandal.’

‘Not for me,’ Kent said, sounding insufferably smug. ‘My reputation would soar.’

‘Mine wouldn’t,’ Sue said tartly.

‘Hey!’ Amy protested, staggering back to the bed.

Sue found the light switch and flipped it on. ‘Dan Egan and Buddy Calhoun. Need I say more?’

Kent was curled up on the couch. He had the spare duvet thrown over him, but she could see his clothes folded up at the side of the couch.

‘Buddy could be the next president,’ Amy muttered.

Kent rolled onto his back. ‘The odds are approximately the same as Jonah becoming president.’

Amy rubbed her eyes. ‘Keep it up and I’ll tell everyone that you had to watch me and Sue’s fucking.’

Kent looked at Sue. ‘Is she still drunk?’

‘Merely woefully uninformed about male sexuality,’ Sue said. She sat up and stretched. ‘Although I seem to remember you specifically not being interested in a threesome.’

‘Are you trying to make me throw up?’ Amy demanded. ‘I don’t even have my toothbrush in here.’

Sue shot her a look. ‘Again, you have slept with both Dan Egan and Buddy Calhoun. Kent would be a considerable step-up on your previous sexual encounters.’

‘I don’t know if I should be insulted or complimented,’ Kent muttered.

Amy pushed her hair back off her face. ‘I’m certainly not complimented.’ She looked over at Kent. ‘I don’t need to hear whether you’ve done better than me.’

Sue scowled as Kent stood up. ‘I think we’ve established that,’ she said, as he wandered over to the bed. He was wearing boxer briefs and nothing else.

‘I don’t think that we –’ Amy caught her breath as Kent kissed her. She leaned into the kiss, her fingers knotting in the sheets.

‘Definitely had worse,’ Kent said, turning away and heading to the bathroom.

Sue hurled a pillow after him. ‘Bastard!’

Amy turned to stare at her. That wasn’t the worst of it. Kent did as well, and his expression was far more speculative.

‘You coulda just kissed me,’ Amy remarked.

‘I know where you’ve been,’ Sue snapped.

***

Sue ordered breakfast while Kent was in the shower. Perhaps it was self-indulgent. Certainly, questions were likely to be asked about the sheer _amount_ of food that she ordered, let alone the variety. If her expenses were scrutinised in detail, then the relevant department was welcome to ask Kent and Amy to pay their share.

Amy was still feeling “delicate,” which was perhaps unsurprising given the amount of alcohol that she’d drunk the night before. She was curled up on the floor nursing yet another coffee, which was surprising, if only because Sue had always assumed that Amy took coffee intravenously.

Sue called home. Her father always insisted that he hated cats. Nonetheless, when asked to simply feed Luddy twice a day and empty out his cat litter once a day, he insisted on staying at Sue’s home because, “it’s less travelling.” The fact that Sue had, on several occasions, come home to find man and cat happily asleep together, was pure coincidence. The toys and bedding that mysteriously appeared when she was away were evidently the work of an animal-loving burglar.

Her father was generally quite competent with technology however she’d woken him, and when he lied that he didn’t know where Luddy was, he clearly hadn’t entirely understood that they were talking via Facetime. The cat was laid across her father’s shoulders, tail twitching sporadically, as he washed his paws.

‘Please let me know when he shows up,’ Sue said.

‘He can’t have got outside, Susan,’ her father said.

‘He has in the past,’ she said. ‘He’s wily.’

‘Sure, sure,’ he said.

Sue shut her laptop. Amy leaned back against the headboard.

‘Who the fuck is Ludwig?’ Amy asked.

‘My cat.’ Sue glanced towards the bathroom. The shower had stopped running.

Amy pulled a face. ‘How many cats do you have?’

‘One. Yes, the one on my father’s shoulders. He pretends to dislike them.’ Sue glanced at the bathroom door. ‘It seems to be a matter of pride.’

Amy flicked on the coffee machine. ‘My dad is like that with Sophie’s kids.’ She thought about it. ‘Except he really doesn’t like them because they’re horrible little shits.’

Sue folded her arms. ‘Adults are little better.’

‘Oh, fuck me,’ Amy said, rolling her eyes. ‘How are you still pissed about Kent kissing me?’

‘I don’t care about that. You’re entirely at liberty to be kissed by anyone you wish.’

Amy pulled a face. When she spoke, her voice was a low hiss. ‘I’m not banging Kent! But if I was, it’d be no business of yours.’

Sue gritted her teeth. ‘I wouldn’t date Dan.’

‘Not out of fucking respect to me!’

‘It’s not done!’

Amy narrowed her eyes. ‘You fucked Kent like… three times, five damn years ago!’

Sue drew herself up. ‘The timing is irrelevant.’

The bathroom door opened, and Kent walked out drying his hair. He stopped in the doorway, looking at them warily. ‘Should I ignore the shouting or…’

‘Did I miss the bit where someone explained why we’re all in Sue’s hotel room?’ Amy asked.

‘You were too drunk to be left alone,’ Sue said.

Amy looked at Kent. He vaguely gestured at Sue.

‘We brought you back here and then Sue… it became clear that Sue was not positioned properly to care for you should you suffer medical consequences from alcohol, or otherwise,’ he said.

Amy ruffled her hair as she looked at Sue. ‘Puked on the floor?’

‘Of course not,’ Sue said, offended. ‘In the toilet.’

Kent picked his tie up from the floor. ‘It would not have been appropriate to leave either of you alone never mind abandoning the two to the vagaries of your inebriation.’  

Amy rolled her eyes. ‘Jesus, you pick a hell of a time to think you’re chivalrous.’

Kent put his tie on. ‘I have been called old-fashioned.’

Sue felt her skin warm. ‘You should be more concerned with explaining to people what kind of man you are to spend time with two desirable women in a vulnerable situation and fail to take advantage on either of them.’

He strolled to the door. ‘Your view of masculinity is… concerning at best, Susan.’

‘You’re going to miss breakfast,’ Amy said.

Kent opened the door to the room service then turned back and gave the two women a smirk.

‘You’re fucking intolerable, you know that?’ Amy asked.

‘I do my best.’

***

Even from the other side of the church, Sue could see Selina rolling her eyes at having to make nice with the former First Lady. They had always hated each other. That wasn’t surprising, Selina hated other women, especially those in happy, satisfying relationships. Nothing offended her sensibilities quite as much as other people’s happiness. Kent and Ben flanked her, the Statler and Waldorf to her Miss Piggy.

Amy was as far away from Jonah and Beth as possible as while still being part of the group. Sue sniffed. Little wonder that Amy was getting black out drunk. Jonah appeared to be spiralling into ever deeper idiocy and venom. His wife, whom Sue had yet to meet, gave every impression of hanging on his every word.

Sue did not believe in the sentimental pap that “everyone deserved someone.” Many people were blatantly in the shallow end of the genetic pool and should be drowned forthwith. They should not have a partner and they certainly should not reproduce.

Kent had told her that this was “eugenics” and was generally considered a no-no. Honestly, just because someone went too far was historically not enough to stop Americas doing it.

Amy went to talk to Kent. They had to step away from their respective groups to do so. Gary and Jonah exchanged challenging books. Selina made a point of ignoring them. Sue folded her arms as Amy and Kent talked. It would be work of course. That was how it was done. The politicians strutted around posturing while their aides had quiet conversations and rewrote how the country was run.

Kent touched Amy’s elbow and she gave a lightning fast smile. A genuine smile, not an Amy grimace.

‘Hey, Black Barbie, I think they can hear your teeth grinding right out in the parking lot.’

Sue shot Furlong a look. ‘The better to rend your sagging flesh from your crumbling bones.’

‘Whoa,’ Furlong said. ‘I think I just came.

‘I suppose there must be a first time for everything’.

‘Still pining for Davison, huh?’ Furlong asked. ‘You know, his last girlfriend was deaf. Came to dinner and signed everything. That gotta be amazing. A woman you can tune out just by not looking at her.’

‘I’m working on tuning you out while looking right at you,’ she said. ‘What do you want?’

He shrugged. ‘I’m bored, and Dan Egan is running a book on who’s gonna end up fucking.’

‘You hate Dan,’ Sue said.

‘Yeah, and he’s got you Davison at twelve to one. I’d clean up if you did the deed.’

Sue narrowed her eyes. ‘I believe that Amy and Kent were in the same hotel room last night.’

‘Fuck!’ Furlong erupted, his voice carrying in the quiet room. Over his shoulder, Sue saw people turning to stare.

‘I had two hundred dollars on that,’ he complained. ‘How the fuck did Methuselah’s grandpa end up fathering Amy’s next abortion? You I understand. You two are a fuck made in weights and measures and... what?’ he demanded as the hapless will materialised at his elbow.

‘Mrs Furlong is looking for you,’ Will murmured.

‘Right.’ Furlong nodded at Sue. ‘Thanks for being as helpful as Will in a dick measuring contest.’

‘His dick looks to be about five seven,’ Sue said.

‘Funny,’ Furlong said. ‘You hear that Will? I’m your dick. I’m the thing keeping your wife from sexual satisfaction.’

‘Very possibly, sir.’

***

Sue did not make mistakes. On occasion entirely understandable choices, logical and sensible choices, had unintended consequences. That wasn’t her fault. She couldn’t be expected to understand _every_ possible outcome. When she had told Furlong that Amy and Kent had spent the night together, she hadn’t foreseen that Furlong would go running around the funeral spreading it. It was a _funeral_ for god’s sake, and besides, who cared what the senior strategist of a washed-up, failed president and the campaign manager for a moronic, semi-incestuous, part-term congressman did in their off-hours?

Enough people, apparently. Even Sue could see glances being thrown at Amy. Wasn’t that typical, that all the approbation was aimed at Amy? Although, she couldn’t actually see where Kent was. Had he already –

‘Admiring your handiwork?’

Sue turned around. A lesser woman might have quailed at the annoyance and suspicion in his expression.

‘I have no idea what you’re talking about,’ she said breezily.

He cocked his head. ‘You’re not nearly as good a liar as you insist on believing you are,’ he said.

‘I don’t have time to discuss figments of your imagination,’ she said turning away.

‘Perhaps I’ll discuss the situation with Amy then,’ he said. ‘Evidently we are much closer than I previously believed.’

Sue turned back and tightly folded her arms. ‘If other people have noticed your indiscretion then I am hardly to blame.’

He raised his eyebrows. ‘ _You_ were part of that “indiscretion” which was, if you’ll remember, in _your_ bedroom. There is literally no way that anyone could be aware that Amy and I were in there all night but unaware that you were as well.’

Sue set her jaw. ‘What do you want?’

‘I rather hoped to ask you the same,’ he said. ‘You’re a frequently vindictive woman, Sue, but rarely an erratic one. You seem to be angry towards Amy for some reason that involves me.’ He moved slightly closer. ‘A more arrogant man might suspect jealousy.’

‘That’s ridiculous. What kind of idiotic thing is that to say?’ she demanded. ‘I barely even remembered that we dated until you brought it up. If you could call any of the time we spent together dates. It was practically a charitable act on my part.’ She stared at him. ‘Say something.’ 

He licked his lips. ‘Would you like to get dinner?’

Sue took several breaths. ‘Yes,’ she said eventually. ‘I would.’  

The End

 


End file.
